Biggles Finds His Feet
Biggles Finds His Feet is a short story which was first published in The Modern Boy issue 293, 16th September 1933 under the title Biggles Finds His Feet!. The story was subsequently collected as the 10th short story of the third Biggles book Biggles of the Camel Squadron, published in March 1934. When Biggles Pioneer Air Fighter was published in 1954 by Thames and then in the 1960s by Dean and Son, this was one of two Camel Squadron stories included in the collection along with 11 others from The Camels are Coming. Thus when Camel Squadron was brought out later the same year, this story was left out. This omission continued until the Red Fox edition of the 1990s. Synopsis Biggles develops engine trouble behind enemy lines and can barely make it to no-man's land before being forced to crash land. He manages to join up with a British unit and is forced to fight as an infantryman in the trenches. But being Biggles, he lends an aeronautical flavour to the proceedings, thereby probably inventing the concept of close air support and forward air control. Plot (may contain spoilers - click on expand to read) Characters *Biggles *Bert Smart Aircraft *Sopwith Camel *Albatros *S.E.5 Places Visited *266 Squadron, Maranique Mentioned Other Research Notes *Aerial Victories: Biggles 1 (Albatros). *Other R.F.C. and R.N.A.S. Units mentioned: **287 Sqn - flying S.E.5s. They turn up to render close air support along with 266. References to the past Incongruities Chronology (see also table at Timeline of the Biggles Stories) *There are no specific indicators of timeframe in this story so the reader really has free-play where he wishes to place it. *One approach is simply to take dressing from the story before or the story after. There are thus two options: **The story after is The Dragon's Lair which itself takes dressing from Biggles' Day Off and would be around February 1918. **The story before is The Great Arena which is around July-August 1918. **Of these two, the latter, July-August is the more plausible if only because the story seems to suggest a fairly fluid front with the British and German sides attacking and counter-attacking. This would be consistent with the action during a "push" such as the British 100-days offensive of July-August which is the backdrop to The Great Arena. By contrast, the front would have been relatively static and quiet in February 1918, as the Germans would have been busy preparing for their offensive to be launched in March. Publication History *''The Modern Boy'', Issue 293, 16th Sep 1933 (as Biggles on the Trail!) *''Biggles of the Camel Squadron'', John Hamilton, 1934 and reprints *''Biggles Goes to War'', Boys' Friend Library, 1938 *''Modern Boy's Annual'', 1941 (heavily adapted, as Biggles on the Trail!) *''Biggles Pioneer Air Fighter'', Thames, 1954 and reprints *''Biggles of the Fighter Squadron'', Red Fox, 1992 and reprints *''Biggles of the Camel Squadron'', Norman Wright, 2011 References Category:Short stories Category:Biggles short stories Category:World War One era short stories